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Sunday, June 14, 2009

6/13/09 HBO

Miguel Cotto Wins 12 Round Split Decision Over Joshua Clottey

Round 1: Both fighters jab. Cotto throws a combination. Clottey lands a right. Cotto lands a left hook to Clottey's head and follows it with a body shot and jab. Clottey lands another right. Clottey blocks a lot of Cotto's body punches. Clottey hits Cotto with a right to the head. Clottey lands a left uppercut - left hook combination. Cotto knocks down an off balanced Clottey with a jab.

Round 2: Clottey tags Cotto with a left uppercut. Cotto jabs and lands a left hook to Clottey's head. Clottey fires a left hook to the body. Cotto hits Clottey with a left hook and right to the head. Clottey lands a left uppercut followed by an overhand right. Cotto hits Clottey with a left hook to the head.

Round 3: Cotto throws his jab and circles as he tries to place his shots. Clottey lands a left hook to the head and body. An overhand right lands for Clottey followed by a left uppercut. Cotto jabs and fires a left hook to the body. Cotto throws his jab as Clottey presses forward. There's an accidental clash of heads and Cotto sustains a deep cut over his left eye.

Round 4: Cotto lands a left uppercut to the head and throws a combination to the body. Clottey is landing uppercuts and throwing overhand rights. Clottey lands a right uppercut - overhand right combination. Clottey hits Cotto with left hook to the body followed by a left uppercut. Cotto counters with a left hook to the head. Clottey tags Cotto with a right uppercut. Cotto lands a right to the body and traps Clottey in the corner. Cotto lands a left hook to the body followed by a left uppercut - left hook to the head.

Round 5: Clottey lands some overhand rights. Cotto presses forward and lands a left hook to the body. Cotto's face is very bloody. With 40 seconds left in the round, Clottey slips and falls to the canvas. Cotto pushed him slightly. Clottey jabs and possesses the superior hand speed. They exchange body punches.

Round 6: A left hook - right combination pushes Clottey into the ropees. Cotto lands a left hook to the head. Cotto throws a barrage of punches as Clottey is trapped in the corner. Clottey fights back. Cotto won't let him out of the corner; Clottey is blocking some shots as well. Cotto lands a few left hook - right hand combinations. Clottey gets out of the corner. Cotto lands a left hook - straight right combination that sends Clottey back into the corner. Cotto is all over him.

Round 7: Cotto lands a left hook to the head followed by a left uppercut. Clottey lands an overhand right. Clottey stuns Cotto with a right uppercut. Clottey lands a left hook to the body. Cotto lands a left hook to the body with Clottey pressing forward. Cotto hits Clottey with a left hook to the head. Clottey fires a left uppercut and stuns Cotto with consecutive overhand rights. Clottey lands a right uppercut and overhand right.

Round 8: Clottey lands a right inside followed by left hook to the head. Cotto wipes away the blood dripping in his eye. Clottey lands another right uppercut and hard overhand rights. Cotto throws to the body. Cotto fires and lands a left hook - straight right to Clottey's head. Cotto lands a left hook to the head.

Round 9: Clottey presses forward as Cotto boxes. Clottey lands a straight right and some right uppercuts. Cotto jabs. Clottey hits Cotto with a left hook to the head. Cotto flurries with Clottey in the corner.

Round 10: Clottey presses forward and is still landing the cleaner punches. Cotto nails Clottey with a left hook toward the end of the round.

Round 11: Cotto jabs and lands a left hook - straight right combination. Both fighters exchange right hands. Cotto lands a left uppercut. Cotto lands a combination. Clottey lands a straight right.

Round 12: Both fighters throw combinations. Cotto lands a left hook to the head and boxes. Cotto momentarily switches to a southpaw stance and lands a straight left. As Clottey was turning, Cotto accidentally hit him in the back of the head.

Overall Summary: Before the fight, I picked Cotto to win a close decision/split decision and he did, but after the fight I felt that Clottey should have won a close decision. Joshua Clottey landed the cleaner, harder punches throughout the fight. Cotto kept getting tagged with uppercuts as he came forward as well as right hands. Clottey kept his hands high and blocked many of Cotto's body punches.

Miguel Cotto overcame a deep cut above his left eye that was sustained in the 3rd round due to an accidental headbutt. In the judge's eyes, he boxed well enough as Clottey kept coming forward landing his shots. Cotto appeared to have trouble seeing Clottey's right hand shots coming at him. When Cotto got his punches through Clottey's tough defense, he stunned him a few times.

Clottey pressured Cotto heavily throughout the fight especially after he landed a good shot. Cotto retreated and always threw punches back. Cotto was stunned more than a few times, but weathered the storm. In the later rounds, he had a higher punch output than Clottey. When Cotto got into trouble, he would go back to boxing and fired a hard left jab. Cotto let his combinations come off his jab and it enabled him to pull away with a 12 round split decision victory.

Miguel Cotto improves his record to 34-1, 27 KO's while Joshua Clottey's record falls to 35-3, 20 KO's.

3 comments:

I didnt pick a favorite or predict a winner in this particular fight,i thought before the fight cotto might have a chance to beat Clotty in this fight,..although after the contraversial fight,..i had Joshua Clotty up for an easy unanimous decision ....

First of all, BOTH fighters deserve credit for finishing the fight, when both had legitimate opportunities to walk away. Between Cotto's cut and Clottey's knee, I half-expected the fight to be called at any time.

Second, I have to say this was a very entertaining fight. The decision was a little questionable, and I also thought that Clottey should have won the decision, but nonetheless, I was very entertained.